His Place
by CBear91
Summary: Episode tag to Threads. Jacks thoughts as he watches Sam say goodbye to Jacob.


Disclaimer – I don't own anything, you know the rest.

General Jack O'Neill stared into the room below him watching silently as a daughter said her goodbyes to her dying father. He was still reflecting on the events that had just taken place between said daughter and himself. Watching her now as she said her farewells he couldn't help but admire her bravery and her courage. He knew she was on the edge of losing control, but he also knew that she wouldn't break, not yet, not with this many people present. That would come later, when she was on her own and the day's events caught up with her.

He wanted nothing more than to walk into that room and take her in her arms and let her cry it all out. He wanted to be the one to comfort her in her time of need, to tell her that everything would be okay. It wasn't his place, it was never his place and now it would never be his place, and that thought hurt him more than he cared to admit. She was getting married soon. Neither had really spoken about it, but he had to come to the conclusion that even thought they had silently agreed that her upcoming marriage wouldn't change anything between them, he knew it would and so did she. If he were honest he would say that things had changed between them a long time ago. He was no longer just her commanding officer, he was "The Man", heck he spoke to the President of the United States nearly every other day, not something your average everyday cop did.

She'd admitted to him long ago that she needed some form of a normal life, and he had to agree with her, hell they all needed something normal in their lives. He didn't have it in him to deny her the happiness she craved so much. He had hoped that he would be the one to give it to her, he had hoped with his whole heart that they could have their someday. He knew he couldn't ask her to wait forever, and with the whole state of affairs out there, it was looking less and less likely that their someday would be anytime soon. So he had to let her go and if the cop was what she wanted then there was nothing he could, nothing he would do to stand in her way.

If he was honest with himself, and he rarely was, he couldn't help but hope that something went wrong and shed leave the cop, the cop, he couldn't call him by his name that would only make it more real and he wasn't ready to face up to that yet, he knew he'd have to at some point but for know he'd would just refer to him as the cop. It was almost as if he didn't think his name then there was still a chance for them, for their someday.

In his world and his dreams the cop didn't exist, it was just them him and her, with the house in the suburbs and the white picket fence, with a back yard big enough for the dog it was just them, the rest of the world didn't exist. Maybe a couple of years ago that fantasy would have included kids, but now with the wedding so close he could torture himself with the image of brown haired blue eyed children it was too painful. It was odd but sometimes out of the blue those children's faces would drift through his thoughts and he would find himself wanting to grieve for something that didn't exist in the real world except in his head. He just put in down to going through the Stargate one too many time, it had left his head a bit scrambled.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he noticed the distraught women below him, her shoulders shaking in silent sobs. His heart was breaking at the sight, he wanted nothing but to go to her and hold her and make everything better. It wasn't his place, it would never be his place, and he just had to keep telling himself that, no matter how much it hurt. It was at that point that he realised that he had just promised this woman, this amazing, smart, beautiful woman that he would be there for her, that he would always be there for her because he was her friend, if nothing else he was her friend and right now she needed someone to be there for her and for now at least he could do that.

His undoing was when she looked up at him, those blue eyes full of tears; he didn't care what anyone told him at that moment in time, this woman needed him and he would be damned if anyone stopped him from being there for her. He was beginning to realise that it didn't matter if she married that cop, he would always be friends with this women, they had been through too much together, hell he had saved her life and her his too many times to count and that was something the cop just couldn't live up to. He just had to keep telling himself that it didn't matter what happened, because they would always share that bond. She would always have his friendship not matter what choices she made and it didn't matter how much he hated the idea but he would be at her wedding, he would watch her marry another man and he would be there for her, always, because that's what he'd promised. It was his place; it was his place as her friend, no matter how much he wished it was his place as something more, it would always be his place as her friend.

A/N Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome; I'm always looking for ideas on how I can improve. I'm possible thinking of writing a few more chapters to this and have a few ideas of where to take it but for now I'm going to mark it as complete.


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